R. Crosby Kemper III is the former director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), where he served by presidential appointment with unanimous Senate confirmation from 2020 to 2024. While he was director, the IMLS created the REALM project (Reopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums) during the COVID-19 pandemic and administered the reestablished President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. Prior to his tenure at IMLS, Kemper was the director of the Kansas City Public Library from 2005 to 2020, where he was the creator and host of “Meet the Past,” a public programming series that received seven Emmy nominations and two Emmy Awards. In 2008 he received the National Medal for Library Service in a White House ceremony. Kemper was CEO of UMB Financial Corporation based in Kansas City from 2000 to 2004 and president of UMB Bank in St. Louis from 1993 to 2000. 

A board member of numerous cultural and educational institutions, his civic contributions include serving as chair of the Missouri Commission on the Future of Higher Education,  co-founder and chair of the Show-Me Institute in St. Louis, co-founder and chair of the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, and co-founder of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival in Kansas City.